Posts Tagged ‘London’
The Two Cultures*: technology in the service of the Arts…
Last January, The Royal Opera House and Weiden + Kennedy London co-hosted Culture Hack Day. “an event… bringing cultural organisations together with software developers and creative technologists to make interesting new things.”
And make interesting new things they did. For instance, Roderick Hodgson @roderickhodgson made Altfilm, an elegant interactive directory of venues showing non-mainstream films. Ben Firshman @bfirsh made BBC Haiku Player (The Guardian got similar treatment from Adam Groves). And your agoraphobic correspondent’s personal fave: Dan Williams‘ “When Should I Visit?”– which mines Foursquare check-in data to determine “the least busy time to visit the museums, galleries and theatres of London.”
More wonderful examples of creative cross-pollination (and links to descriptions and photos of the proceedings) at Culture Hack Day. C.P. Snow would be proud.
*“The Two Cultures,” the 1959 Rede Lecture by British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow, who argued that the breakdown of communication between the “two cultures” of modern society– the sciences and the humanities– was a major hurdle to solving the world’s problems.
As we think integrative thoughts, we might recall that The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations– or the Great Exhibition, as it was more familiarly known– opened on this date in 1851 at the Crystal Palace in London’s Hyde Park. Conceived and organized by Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, the Exhibition was nominally a collection of technological wonders from around the globe. But the eight miles of tables manned by 6,000 exhibitors within the Crystal Palace were largely British… in keeping with Albert’s real intent– the mounting of an overwhelming display of Britain’s role as industrial leader of the world. Six million people (equivalent to roughly a third of Britain’s population at the time) attended during its six-month run.
The Exhibition; architect Sir Joseph Paxton enclosed whole trees in his design. (source)
Vaulting pole…
Facing the waist-line challenges that lie ahead on this day of calorie-soaked celebration, a reader’s thoughts might well turn to exercise…
Most Americans are aware of the craze-let that purports to turn pole dancing into a fitness routine.
But as reader MK points out, in India poles are a guy’s domain– and are the locus of some pretty extraordinary moves; here, a look at the traditional sport– it dates back at least as far as the Twelfth Century– they call “Mallakhamb“…
As we marvel at the mastery, we might recall that it was on this date in 1952 that Agatha Christie’s mystery play The Mousetrap opened in London’s West End– where it has run, without interruption, since.
Odds are…
The odds an accidental death will be due to being bitten or struck by an alligator are 1 in 104,600 (US, 1999 – 2005).
…or, roughly the same odds as that a male will be diagnosed with breast cancer (1 in 100,000), but slightly worse than the odds that a person in Maine will die of a fall from a ladder (1 in 110,000) or that a person in Nebraska will die of alcohol poisoning (also 1 in 110,000)…
To play in the pastures of probability– as pertains to Accidents & Death, Daily Life & Activities, Health & Illness, Relationships & Society– visit Book of Odds.
As we consider our chances, we might recall that it was on this date in 1741 that David Garrick made his debut at London’s Goodman’s Fields Theater in the title role in Shakespeare’s Richard III; Garrick received a standing ovation, and went on become one of the most celebrated English actors of all time (and the owner/manager of The Drury Lane Theatre, a pretty important gig in its own right)…
I do mistake my person all this while;
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
I’ll be at charges for a looking-glass…
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Catching a breath…
One knows that CO2 emissions are fouling the atmosphere, but to see it in real time is an illuminatng– and chastening– thing… Now, thanks to David Bleja’s Breathing Earth, one can.
Breathing Earth is a real-time simulation displays the CO2 emissions of every country in the world, as well as their birth and death rates; one simply scrolls over a country to watch it “puff.” Worryingly, as David observes,
Please remember that this real time simulation is just that: a simulation. Although the CO2 emission, birth rate and death rate data used in Breathing Earth comes from reputable sources, data that measures things on such a massive scale can never be 100% accurate. Please note however that the CO2 emission levels shown here are much more likely to be too low than they are to be too high.
As we recommit to reducing our carbon footprints, we (at least those of us who remember how hard it used to be to get a decent cup of coffee in London until relatively recently) might add a celebratory extra lump of sugar today, in celebration of the opening on the Channel Tunnel on this date in 1994. The influx of Continental visitors that this occasioned– all of them anxious for an espresso or a latte– has led to a London in which (as it seems to a pedestrian) every third store-front is a Starbucks or a Cafe Nero or a Seattle’s Best…
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